Sweats to Suits Your transition from campus to the workplace

These Boots were Made for “Working”

I had a mini-meltdown this week after surrounding myself with a group of mommy-minded girlfriends at dinner.  I was so excited to have a night off from studying to get caught up with the ladies, but by the time I got home I was a wreck.  Talk of daycare, part-time vs. full-time employment, and limited mobility was making my head spin.  I felt like I was Sarah Jessica Parker in that episode of Sex and the City where she lost her Manolo Blahnik’s at a baby shower and was overwhelmed by baby mania (with the exception of the shoe stealing part – please, my friends and I are too practical to wear shoes that expensive!).  I’m sure my husband was thrilled that he came home a day early from business travel only to be greeted by a teary-eyed wife up in arms about how to manage life, work, and family in the future.

The exciting silver lining here (well, actually there are several, but since I have been neglecting decision trees and depreciation all day I must attempt to stay focused) is that I received approval this week to engage in an independent study project focused on women's initiatives in the workplace as part of my MBA curriculum and personal mission to arrive at some answers of my own related to work-life balance. [As an aside, my Accounting professor recently emailed me to say, “I enjoyed your blog.  You are a very talented writer!” which hopefully gives me some leeway with regard to my lack of quantitative focus in my current state].

Now, back to the project… For now, I’ll refer to my fabulous Organizational Behavior Prof. as “M” since he is unfamiliar with the blogosphere and also my use of his identity. Thanks to M, (who will be mentoring me over the course of the project) we arrived at a hybrid title, i.e. a combo of his structured PhD take and my “why do things move so slowly in this country? take:

Progressive Workplace Practices for Women: a Cross-Cultural Perspective

I had plenty of inspiration for this topic beyond my girlfriends. The fuel for the fire really erupted a few months ago at a low-key bachelorette party.  The (now U.K.-based) maid of honor, Rachel, was kind enough to answer all of my questions about what it’s like to reside across the pond…in life, in work, and perhaps most relevant here, in motherhood. I think the other partygoers were really annoyed by my interrogation, but how often does one get the chance to hear about this stuff directly from the expat’s mouth!  Rachel enlightened me about the stark differences in flexibility and culture she encountered between her U.S. and U.K. experiences while employed by the same professional services firm.

From that point on, I was hooked on learning more about how women and primary caregivers seem to get a better deal overseas. Although my good friend Frank commented, “I’m not sure you could have selected a city with a more dismal climate and higher cost of living, Joy”, I still stand by my infatuation with all things British.  If the opportunity presents itself for me to live there someday, I’ll slap a Union Flag on my suitcase and be on the first flight to Heathrow before you can say “tea and crumpets”.

If You Build It, They Will Come…

Although my deliverable for this project is still undefined, I am hoping to identify organizations abroad that currently offer both top-down and bottom-up programs for women and primary caregivers.  I’d like to produce something of a roadmap for organizations to use in order to customize and implement programs like these in the American workplace without incurring a bureaucratic nightmare or a major shift in policy.

We know these programs exist, but we rarely hear about them unless an organization or industry has the resources to employ a massive PR campaign: case in point, Flex Time Flourishes in Accounting Industry, an article, which appeared in the business section of last week’s New York Times.  Perhaps I’m a cynical millennial who can’t appreciate the progress of the past twenty years, but I worked for one of those firms and I know the reality.  We have a LONG way to go.

Friends, Europeans, Countrymen(and women), Lend me your Contacts!

This is where you as my readers and friends come in.  Until I get my head around the women’s initiatives already out there and develop a powerful survey with M, I’d like to start building a network of contacts both here in the U.S. and in Europe who may be able to help me with my research.  My focus will be London, since I am headed there in November to conduct live interviews.

If you know anyone in the U.K. [and now I am thinking about a day trip to Paris] who may have a story to tell or know someone with a network of contacts in Europe, please let me know.  For example, a number of the students I work with at my university have interned abroad and are connecting me to their former supervisors!  I even have a friend who connected me to a rabbi in London – spiritual leaders have HUGE networks.  Everyone knows someone over there and those contacts know many others!

Before this turns into a LinkedIn advertisement, I will mention that I’d also appreciate your forwarding my blog entry (or excerpts from it, as this one has become quite long) to anyone you know domestically who has benefitted from a flexibility initiative, or better yet, someone who runs these sorts of programs in his or her workplace.  I will take all the contacts I can get, but please remind them that full-time job + part-time MBA student = limited free time for immediate follow up!

Thank you in advance for reading and for your help with my assignment.  I look forward to providing you with updates along the way and perhaps arriving at some of my own answers in the process!